The Whole Web Thing
People (such as my relatives) often ask why I even bother having a website. Now, for the first time, I'm starting to ask myself the same question. What am I spending all this time and money for?
Back in 1998 when I first went online, everything was so much more intense than it is now. When I ran for Vice-President of the Student's Council, I got more hits with the URL www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/3549 than I do now with willmatheson.com. It was insane. People talked about what they saw on my website. Rumors flew.
But later, everybody and their dog started building a website ("hi my name is whosyourdaddy108. i like fishing and cow-tipping. here is a picture of my cat"), and then I was left in the dust, seemingly no matter how hard I tried.
However, things are changing now. Getting the domain name might have been just the push I needed - and now that my profile has increased, I take the website more seriously. Sure, I'll get the occasional "Fuck you, Will! Get a life!" message about it, but I've got better coping skills now than I used to have.
The larger purpose of willmatheson.com is to accumulate all of my better artistic works, and also to present myself online as a whole and complete person. It lets friends and relatives check up on what I'm doing. It gives me a hobby, and also an incentive to get some writing done. It allows me to meet people that I normally wouldn't, and the existence of my website had helped propel me into several friendships, many works of art, and it has also kept me going through the bad times of my life.
Suffice it to say, when I want to meet women, I go someplace else.
willmatheson.com - We're twice as old as MICHAELFOX.COM, plus we're... well, real.